SAN JOSE — Gilma Pereda was having trouble quieting her brain. That’s where doctors found a cyst the size of an egg a few weeks before Halloween, when an unexpected trip to the emergency room turned into a life-threatening prognosis, forcing the now-three-time cancer patient into quarantine during her favorite holiday’s festivities.

When Pereda was first diagnosed with stage 1B cervical cancer almost a decade ago — shortly after immigrating from Mexico City — the grueling treatment taught her a lesson about self-love and health. Then the cancer’s metastatic recurrence in 2021, which spread to her lungs and fractured her spine, dealt a blow of chemotherapy and immunotherapy that she barely survived.

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